Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Media attack on the alt-right

With the election of Donald J. Trump — and his subsequent appointment of Stephen K. Bannon, a former chairman of the right-wing website Breitbart News, as his chief White House strategist — the term alt-right has emerged as a linguistic flash point. Generally deployed by news organizations to describe a far-right, white nationalist movement known for its aggressive online expression, the term has attracted widespread criticism among those, particularly on the left, who say it euphemizes and legitimizes the ideologies of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.

Trump has been denounced by various gatekeepers of the Right, such as Mitt Romney, National Review, George Will, and the Weekly Standard. So alt-right is a good term for his message.

Yes, the leftist news media likes all that name-calling, but they say the same about Republicans, conservatives, and everyone else they don't like.

The article does not cite any views of Trump supporters.

Last Wednesday, The Washington Post circulated style guidelines for several terms, including alt-right, which it defined in part as “a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state” whose adherents are “known for espousing racist, anti-Semitic and sexist points of view.”

This is just an attempt to marginalize Trump supporters. Some Trump supporters have extreme views, just as many Democrats do. I use the term alt-right to refer to the broader coalition that elected Trump.